Bands of Gold

by Angela Benson

  Jackson jumped up from his chair. “Pregnant? Christina?”

  “Yes.”

  “When? Who?” Jackson asked, but he already knew the answers.

  “I’d think that you’d know that better than me.”

  “Are you sure? She’s pregnant?”

  “That’s why she took the leave. She wanted to get away.”

  Jackson sat down. God, did I have bad timing. First I need space, and then those damn roses show up. “She didn’t want me to know, did she?”

  “You really should be having this conversation with her, Jackson. I only know bits and pieces.”

  Christina came to tell me about the baby, Jackson concluded. In spite of all that had happened between us she wanted me to know about the baby. That meant there was still a chance for us. “That’s all right, man. You’ve helped a lot.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  I’ve got to move fast, Jackson thought. First, I’ve got to find out who sent those roses. “I don’t know yet, but I’m not going to let her keep me away from my child. I’m going to be a father.” Jackson thought back to Christina’s visit. She hadn’t been showing then. “Do you know how far along she is?”

  “No, man. I’ve told you all I know.”

  “I appreciate it, Robert. Thanks a lot.”

  Jackson continued to hold the phone to his ear even after Robert hung up. I’m going to be a father, he thought. Christina and I have made a baby. The ending dial tone signaled him to hang up.

  He wondered what kind of father he’d be. He’d be better than his father, that’s for sure. His father. Today was the first Sunday of the month and Jackson had yet to call his dad. Now is as good a time as any, he thought. He picked up the phone again. “Good morning, Dad.”

  “Good morning yourself, Jackson. How you doing?”

  His dad was sober. “I’m doing great, Dad. I’ve got some news for you. I’m going to be a father.”

  “A father? I didn’t even know you were married.”

  “I’m not yet, Dad, but I soon will be.”

  “Who is she?”

  “Her name’s Christina.”

  “I don’t recall you mentioning her before. How long have you been seeing this woman?”

  “For a while now. I just haven’t talked much about her.”

  “Do you love her, son?”

  “I do, Dad. I love her a lot.” The words seemed inadequate to express the depth of the feelings he had for Christina.

  “Be careful. I loved your mother, too.”

  That was the closest thing to criticism his father had said about his mother in a long while. Maybe he was getting over her, Jackson thought. He wasn’t going to bet on it, though. “I know, Dad.”

  “A woman can hurt you real bad, Jackson. You be careful.”

  “You’ll have to meet Christina. She’s not like that. We’re going to be together forever.” Jackson prayed he was right.

  “Just be careful, son.”

  “I will, Dad.” Now that he was an expectant father, Jackson wanted a better relationship with his own dad. “What are you doing next weekend?”

  “Nothing much.”

  “How about I come for a visit?” Jackson hadn’t seen his father in more than two years.

  “I’d like that, son. I’d like that a lot.”

  Jackson heard the surprise in his dad’s voice and he smiled.

  ***

  “Your move,” Jackson’s father, Jim, said.

  Jim and a friend had been playing checkers on the porch when Jackson drove up. After the friend had left, Jim coaxed Jackson into a game. Jackson wasn’t playing very well. He was distracted because he still hadn’t come up with a plan for finding out who had sent the roses. He moved one of the red checkers without much thought.

  “How long are you gonna be staying?” Jim asked.

  He had an appointment with a private investigator Monday morning. “I’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon.”

  “That’s a short time to stay after such a long flight. You must have plenty of money.” Jim jumped two of Jackson’s pieces.

  “I do all right, you know that.” Jackson studied the board. He didn’t have a free move left. He could only prolong the inevitable.

  Jim nodded. “Always knew you’d do good for yourself.”

  Jackson was surprised at that comment. Jim didn’t hand out praise often. “Did you, Dad?”

  “Too stubborn not to do good.” Jim jumped all of Jackson’s pieces with a single move. The game was over. “But you didn’t do too well in this game.”

  “I was not stubborn,” Jackson argued.

  Jim began setting the board up for the next game. “Yes, you were, too. When you got something on your mind, you were like a dog with a bone. Wouldn’t give up until you had it whipped.”

  Jackson was surprised at the pride on his father’s face. He couldn’t recall ever seeing it before.

  “Remember when you first joined the track team?” Jim continued.

  “Yeah, I remember. You told me I wasn’t going to be any good.”

  Jim laughed at that. “Proved me wrong, though, didn’t you? Came in first in every race.”

  “I didn’t even know you kept up with the races.” Jim had never come to any of his meets.

  Jim smiled as if remembering. “I knew about ’em, all right.”

  Jackson could only stare at his dad. He wondered at his dad’s tone. He sounded as if Jackson should have known that he kept up with his activities. “You never mentioned them to me.”

  Jim picked up a checker and twirled it in his hand. “We argued about everything back then.”

  Not everything, Jackson thought, someone. “You still love her, don’t you?”

  Jim didn’t answer immediately. “Too much,” he finally said He was quiet again. “And too long.”

  Jackson agreed. “Don’t you think it’s time you stopped?”

  Jim pointed to his heart. “I loved your mama way down in here.”

  Jackson didn’t think Jim had really tried to get over Sarah, but he didn’t want to get Jim on his soapbox about her, so he changed the subject.

  “How about me taking you out to dinner? Catfish?”

  “Your mama made the best catfish in town. Did I tell you that?”

  Jackson groaned. It was going to a long visit.

  ***

  “So she thinks you’ve been sending the roses?”

  Jackson had been determined not to spend the entire dinner listening to Jim cry over Sarah, but he couldn’t believe he’d told Jim the full story of him and Christina. “That’s what she thinks all right.”

  “If you ask me, any woman who’d believe something like that about her man doesn’t know what love is. I say, be glad to get rid of her.”

  That wasn’t the response Jackson wanted. “I’m not exactly rid of her, Dad. She’s pregnant, remember?”

  “How do you know it’s yours?”

  There’d never be any doubt about that. “It’s mine, all right.”

  “You’d best be careful, boy. Women, these days, you can’t trust ’em. They’ll do about anything to get a man.”

  Jackson put two hushpuppies in his mouth to give him time to prepare a suitable response to Jim’s negative comments. “Christina doesn’t need to trap a man, Dad. She doesn’t need me.” That’s the problem, Jackson added to himself.

  “Don’t be too sure about that. She don’t have no man, does she?”

  Jackson knew this conversation was going nowhere. “How about apple pie for dessert? They used to have the best in town.”

  Jim nodded. “They have good apple pie, right enough, but your mama made the best apple pie in town.”

  ***

  “How did you know where to find me?” Christina asked. She had just come in from a day at the nursery.

  “I ran into Angela in the Atlanta Airport last weekend,” Reggie answered.

&n
bsp; She sat down in the chair next to the telephone table. “Angela told you where I was?” She wondered if Angela had also told Jackson.

  “She mentioned it in passing. She was on her way to Boston.”

  That figures, Christina thought. Angela must have found out from the Radio-thon Committee. “You were in Atlanta?”

  “No,” Reggie answered. “I was on my way to D.C. I’m spending a lot of time in airports these days. As a matter of fact, I’m in one now.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Montgomery.”

  “Montgomery? What are you doing in Montgomery?”

  “I’ll give you three guesses.”

  Christina didn’t need three guesses. “Reggie . . .”

  “If you invite me to dinner, I can be there in less than ninety minutes.”

  Two hours later they were seated in Rob’s Steakhouse. “I thought you were going to cook for me.”

  Christina laughed at that. “I don’t cook anymore.”

  “How are you going to be a good mom if you don’t cook?”

  Christina had been pleased with Reggie’s response to her pregnancy. He had looked at her and smiled. Her emotions had gotten the best of her and she had begun to cry. He had pulled her into his arms and let her do just that and he hadn’t asked any questions . . .yet. “I didn’t say I can’t cook, I said I don’t cook. Anyway, I can handle milk and formula. How many babies do you know that come here eating solid food?”

  “You have a point there,” Reggie conceded. “But they tell me babies move from milk to solid food pretty fast.”

  “I don’t think that’s a problem. Mom can cook and she’s going to spoil this baby rotten.”

  “Aren’t you going back to Atlanta and your job after the baby is born?”

  Christina leaned back against the booth. She had thought a lot about that. She didn’t know if she could go back to the memories and she didn’t know if she wanted to go back to CL. “I don’t know. It surprises me, but I really don’t miss work. I thought I would.”

  “What would you do?”

  Christina pushed her plate away. “Oh, I don’t know. There are a lot of things I could do. I could go into business with my mom. She’s thinking about opening another nursery in Montgomery.”

  “You could go from being a top business executive to running a small nursery?”

  “In a heartbeat. I’ve even thought about opening a preschool. That way I could be with my baby all day.”

  Reggie reached over and took her hand. “I knew it.”

  “Knew what?”

  He squeezed her hand before letting go and settling back in his chair. “You’re more like my mom than I thought.”

  She remembered him telling her something like that before. “Maybe a little.”

  “More than a little. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about being a full-time mom.”

  “More like dreamed about it. That’s not a choice for a single mom, though.”

  “You don’t have to be single,” Reggie said.

  “I’ve decided. Jackson’s not going to be a part of this baby’s life.” She had come to her decision and she didn’t want to get into a discussion of Jackson and the baby. She’d had that conversation often enough with her mother.

  “I’m not talking about Jackson.”

  Christina saw the sincerity of his statement in his eyes. She didn’t know what to say. “Reggie, you can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, but I am,” he said.

  She placed her hand on her extended belly. “Why would you want a wife who’s pregnant with another man’s child?”

  “I don’t want a woman who’s pregnant with another man’s child. I want you, and I’ll love this baby like my own.”

  This was all happening too fast for Christina. “You only found out about the baby today. How can you make such an offer?”

  “I’ve been in love with you for a while, Christina. You know that.”

  She did know it. “I know, but . . .”

  “There are no buts. My hat’s in the ring. I want to marry you. I want to have other babies with you. Now what do you want?”

  She wanted marriage and she wanted a family. But she also wanted it with a man she loved, and she didn’t love Reggie. “This isn’t right, Reggie.”

  “It is right, Christina. You can turn me down, but you can’t ignore my proposal. We can go shopping for a ring tomorrow.”

  “Reggie—” she began.

  He interrupted her. “Don’t turn me down out of hand. Think about it. We could have a good life together. I love you. You like me. You could grow to love me.”

  “It’s too much,” she said.

  “All I ask is that you think about it. Will you do that?”

  She saw the sincerity in his eyes and nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

  ***

  “He’s a nice man,” Louise said later, after Reggie had brought Christina home. He had stayed awhile, talking with them.

  “He asked me to marry him.”

  Louise put down the paper she was holding. “What?”

  “He asked me to marry him.”

  “Doesn’t he see that you’re pregnant?”

  Christina put her hand on her stomach. “The man isn’t blind. He sees.”

  “The baby isn’t his.”

  “He’s not stupid, either. He knows the baby isn’t his.”

  “You told him no, of course.”

  Christina put her feet up on the ottoman. They tended to swell by the end of the day. “I tried.”

  “What do you mean, you tried? Either you told him or you didn’t. Which is it?”

  “I didn’t exactly tell him no,” Christina explained. The more she thought about Reggie’s proposal, the more she convinced herself that it wasn’t such a bad idea. A lot of marriages started with less than the friendship she and Reggie shared. Maybe they could make it . . . maybe . . .

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I agreed to think about it.”

  “I don’t believe this, Christina. You can’t seriously be thinking of marrying this man when you’re carrying Jackson’s baby.”

  “I don’t know, Mother. Maybe I am.”

  “This isn’t right, Christina. You need to tell Jackson about this baby.”

  “I’m not getting into that with you again. As for Reggie’s proposal, I’m thinking about it.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I’m not thinking seriously about it, but I am thinking about it. Is that so wrong, Mom? He loves me.”

  “Do you love him?”

  No, I don’t love him. “I could love him if I tried.”

  “Sometimes you’re so young, Christina. Love doesn’t happen that way.”

  ***

  Reggie spent the next day at the nursery, helping Christina do the books. “Has your mother ever thought about expanding out West? Oklahoma City could use more nurseries.”

  Christina looked up from the ledger she was working on. “Reggie . . .”

  “Just trying to help you make a business decision. Maybe I should talk to Louise about this.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

  He laughed. “Maybe you’re right. Last night I thought she liked me, but this morning she treated me like I have the plague.”

  “Let me guess. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea?”

  Christina smiled at him. “Let’s just say she thinks it’s bad timing.”

  “The baby?”

  She nodded. “And the baby’s father.”

  Reggie got up from the desk where he was working and walked over to the table where Christina sat clipping stems. “We haven’t talked about that.”

  “I know, and I’m glad.”

  “Why haven’t you told him?”

  She remembered Angela in the towel. There was no way she could share her baby with Jackson and Angela or whoever he chose as his wife. No, t
hat would be too painful for her. “Jackson has moved on with his life. I’m his past. The baby was an accident. Why should it haunt him now?”

  “Is that what the baby is to you, an accident?”

  “No.” This baby was her life now. She loved it already. She’d transferred all the love she had for Jackson to their baby. It didn’t end the pain and hurt she still felt, but it did lessen it.

  “Then why do you think he would look at it like that?” Christina didn’t like the way the conversation was progressing. She didn’t want to think about Jackson and Angela. It was all she could do to take care of her own feelings. “Do you really want me to tell him?”

  Reggie moved closer. “No.”

  Christina turned to look at him. She hadn’t expected his honestly. “Then why are we having this discussion?”

  Reggie scratched his chin. “Want to get married?”

  She threw a plant stem at him.

  ***

  Five weeks passed and Jackson was no closer to finding out who’d sent the roses than when he’d started. He hadn’t talked to Christina, and he was getting restless. He needed to see her, but he was afraid to go to her without having some concrete information about those roses. He’d have a hard enough time explaining what had gone on with Angela. He picked up the phone and dialed. He was glad to hear Robert’s voice. He got right to the important stuff. “What’s the latest on Christina?”

  “You haven’t talked to her?”

  “No. There are some loose ends that I need to tie up before I see her.”

  “You’d better hurry up and tie them. Christina’s engaged. She might even be married by now.”

  Jackson jumped out of his chair. “Engaged? What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Don’t yell at me, man. I’m just telling you what I heard. She’s getting married.”

  Jackson pinched his nose with his fingers. Things have gone from bad to worse. “To who?”

  “I don’t know. Liza doesn’t tell me anything. She doesn’t want us in the middle.”

  “How would you two get in the middle?”

  “You know, her taking Christina’s side and me taking your side.”

  “You’re not taking sides. You’re doing the right thing. I was supposed to know about the baby. It’s also my right to know about this engagement. She can’t be engaged when she’s pregnant with my baby.”